All you need to know about the recent outbreaks of these bloodsucking insects. <\/p>
Ah Paris. The City of Light. Home of romance and roses\u2026 and a \u2018plague\u2019 of bed bugs that have infested the French capital. <\/p>
Sightings are apparently on the up \u2013 the insects have been spotted in cinemas, trains, hospitals and schools<\/a>. They were the talk of Paris Fashion Week and now, if media reports are to be believed, they are hopping on the Eurostar and coming to a UK city near you. So how worried should we be?<\/p> Bed bugs are in every city, everywhere. It\u2019s hard to know what is happening in Paris because there are no official figures, but in the UK the pest control company Rentokil has reported a 65 per cent increase<\/a> in bed bug infestations over the last year. <\/p> Where people go, bed bugs go, hitching a ride on clothes and luggage, so this upward trend is probably due to people travelling more after Covid. And while some UK pest controllers are currently reporting more callouts<\/a>, this may simply be because the media fuss has made people more vigilant.<\/p> A handful of videos posted on social media claim to show bed bugs on the London Underground. One shows an insect on a passenger\u2019s trouser leg<\/a>, another shows a bug on the roof of a carriage<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/p> Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, said the bed bug issue was \u201ca real source of concern<\/a>\u201d and reassured Londoners that their tube trains are regularly cleaned. <\/p> However, there\u2019s no concrete evidence that these are bed bugs. The videos are too grainy for a formal ID, and the insects\u2019 behaviour is odd. Bed bugs favour nooks and crannies so are rarely spotted out in the open.<\/p> Bed bugs are tiny, nocturnal insects that feed mainly on human blood. In the UK and Europe, bed bug bites are caused by Cimex lectularius<\/em>, aka the common bed bug, which uses its needle-like mouth parts to pierce the skin. <\/p> As if that wasn\u2019t grim enough, males impregnate females by stabbing them in the abdomen with their dagger-shaped penises. During her life, a single female can lay hundreds of eggs, which hatch and become sexually mature within weeks. <\/p> \u201cLeft untreated, the population can explode,\u201d says medical entomologist Prof James Logan<\/a> from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.<\/p> It\u2019s not always obvious. Bed bugs inject an anaesthetic when they bite, so you don\u2019t feel it happen. It also happens at night, so you\u2019re asleep. <\/p> They tend to go for uncovered body parts, such as the face, neck and arms. Some people don\u2019t react at all but for those who are allergic, the bite can trigger localised patches of itchiness and swelling. On white<\/a> skin, the bites usually look red. On black or brown skin, they tend to look purple and are more difficult to see.<\/p> Bed bug bites are annoying, but they normally disappear on their own within a week or so. In the meantime, it\u2019s a good idea to keep the affected area clean and use a cool, damp cloth to calm any irritation. <\/p> Try not to scratch the bite to avoid risk of infection. Antihistamines and topical steroid creams can also be used but check with your pharmacist first.<\/p> Read more:<\/strong><\/p> Bed bugs are not known to transmit any infectious diseases to humans, but bites and infestations can cause serious mental anguish. Just thinking about bed bugs can make people itch, and the worry of being bitten can cause sleeplessness and anxiety. <\/p> Some people may develop a psychological disorder called delusional parasitosis, where they believe their home is infested when it\u2019s not. This is rare, but it can be distressing and difficult to treat.<\/p> From the 1940s onwards, after DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) and other synthetic insecticides were introduced, bed bugs did die. <\/p> Over time, however, they have been evolving resistance to these chemicals<\/a>, and now many of today\u2019s bed bug populations are largely unaffected by them. Climate change isn\u2019t helping either, as insects tend to live for longer and breed more successfully when the weather is warmer. \u00a0<\/p> You\u2019re looking for a small, apple seed-sized insect, with a flattened, rusty-coloured body, hiding in an inaccessible place. <\/p> Bed bugs can be found under mattresses, in bedframes, behind skirting boards, under rugs, behind electrical sockets, in the back of TV screens\u2026 just about anywhere. If you can\u2019t see them directly, other telltale signs include spots of blood on the bedding and tiny brown smears of bed bug poo. \u00a0<\/p> \u201cIf you spot a possible bed bug, take a photo, and send it to a professional pest controller,\u201d advises Logan. \u201cThey can identify it, and then deal with the problem. You can\u2019t beat it yourself.\u201d <\/p> What you can do, however, is be pre-emptively aware. Check second-hand furniture before you bring it into the house. If you\u2019ve been travelling, check your luggage and clothes. If you\u2019re worried, put your clothes through a hot wash (60o<\/sup>C), before tumbling them on a hot setting for at least 30 minutes. Alternatively, bag up your things and put them in the freezer for a few days.<\/p> The rise in media reports is more likely to reflect the public\u2019s appetite for gruesome stories than it is an actual epidemic. <\/p> \u201cThere\u2019s no need to panic,\u201d says Logan. \u201cHowever, it does give us an insight into the bigger picture; that bed bugs are an increasing problem. We live in a bug\u2019s world. They were here long before us, and they\u2019ll be here long after we\u2019ve gone. We\u2019re never going to get rid of bed bugs, and nor should we. We just need to learn to live smarter in their world.\u201d<\/p> Prof James Logan is a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine\u00a0and is a former head of the Department of Disease Control. Logan is a leading expert in insect repellents, and his research has been published in journals Global Health Action<\/em>, BMC Microbiology<\/em> and the Journal of Medical Entomology<\/em>.<\/p> All you need to know about the recent outbreaks of these bloodsucking insects. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":34985,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"6"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/bed-bugs-uk-guide-how-to-get-rid-of-them-and-how-to-spot-an-infestation.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/bed-bugs-uk-guide-how-to-get-rid-of-them-and-how-to-spot-an-infestation-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/bed-bugs-uk-guide-how-to-get-rid-of-them-and-how-to-spot-an-infestation-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/bed-bugs-uk-guide-how-to-get-rid-of-them-and-how-to-spot-an-infestation-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/bed-bugs-uk-guide-how-to-get-rid-of-them-and-how-to-spot-an-infestation-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/bed-bugs-uk-guide-how-to-get-rid-of-them-and-how-to-spot-an-infestation.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/10\/bed-bugs-uk-guide-how-to-get-rid-of-them-and-how-to-spot-an-infestation.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"All you need to know about the recent outbreaks of these bloodsucking insects.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/34984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Is there a bed bug outbreak in the UK?<\/strong><\/h2>
Are bed bugs spreading on the London Underground?<\/strong><\/h2>
What are bed bugs?<\/strong><\/h2>
How do I know if I\u2019ve been bitten by a bed bug?<\/strong><\/h2>
How do you treat bed bug bites?<\/strong><\/h2>
Are bed bugs a threat to human health?<\/strong><\/h2>
Why won\u2019t bed bugs just die already?<\/strong><\/h2>
How do I know if there are bed bugs in my home or hotel?<\/strong><\/h2>
How should I deal with an infestation?<\/strong><\/h2>
How worried should we be?<\/strong><\/h2>
About our expert<\/strong><\/h2>
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"